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As someone who rarely submits anything, it can be pretty disappointing on those rare occasions when I do try post something I found interesting and see it faili
by zaat 6y ago
As someone who rarely submits anything, it can be pretty disappointing on those rare occasions when I do try post something I found interesting and see it failing to invoke any interest whatsoever. Than again, I just published two days ago what I found to be an extremely interesting and well written non-commercial blog post and not only did it fail to grasp anyone's attention, it didn't even got into your list.
Oh well, at least it isn't my own post.
- SubiculumCode 6y agoI've had a few submissions reach the front page, but I can never predict which ones will do so...definitely not the ones I thought were extra cool.
- rammy1234 6y agonever got any interest in any non-commercial blog posts I found interesting but never generated any fumes.
- dang 6y agoWhat's the most extra cool one that never made it?
- ComputerGuru 6y agoI’m not the poster you asked, but I was extremely surprised when my article on what it took to write a native iMessage client for Windows 10 and the roadblocks and traps Apple left to stop it from happening didn’t get more than a handful of votes; it really seemed to me to be exactly the mix of things that HN readers normally ask for more of. https://neosmart.net/blog/2018/imessage-for-windows/ https://neosmart.net/blog/2018/imessage-for-windows/
- dang 6y agoThe dominant factor in what gets traction off /newest is randomness, unfortunately, so you can't conclude anything from one or two data points. I'll send you a repost invite for that one.
- Wowfunhappy 6y ago^ As of 11:24 PM EDT this story is now the top story on HN. Kind of nuts!
- dvt 6y agoThat's actually very cool -- I've always lamented that iMessage never had a Windows client. I can relate to also posting a few projects/posts that I thought were cool which never hit the front page, but I've also had 4 or so of my blog posts hit top-10 over the past few years, so I shouldn't complain.
- danielskogly 6y agoI was surprised that my post on a strategy to make modern web apps work without JavaScript didn't get any attention, but I might just need some work on my writing and titles. The topic is one I expected to hit the nail on the head with the HN crowd, though. https://blog.klungo.no/2020/05/28/using-react-and-redux-to-acommodate-users-without-javascript/ https://blog.klungo.no/2020/05/28/using-react-and-redux-to-a...
- np_tedious 6y agoWell you've got our attention now. What's the article?
- zaat 6y agohttps://violentmetaphors.com/2013/09/08/an-example-of-how-to-read-a-vaccine-safety-study/ https://violentmetaphors.com/2013/09/08/an-example-of-how-to... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23383599 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23383599 It is a demonstration of the author's guide of how to read scientific papers methodically.
- juped 6y agoAssuming you are referring to the article below, I agree, it's quite interesting and informative. https://violentmetaphors.com/2013/09/08/an-example-of-how-to-read-a-vaccine-safety-study/ https://violentmetaphors.com/2013/09/08/an-example-of-how-to...
- juped 6y agoIt's an unfortunate reality of this site that the top position is always terrible (my eyes have been trained to not even look that high on the page if I see the orange color scheme), and the best posts are languishing somewhere with 2 upvotes. I guess the optimization is for reasonable quality at the middle of the front page. e: of course, now that I say that, the actually excellent iMessage for Windows article from this thread has been placed on top.
- forrestthewoods 6y agoHN is too random. I've submitted my own blogs and gotten zero comments and only a couple of upvotes. Two days later someone submits the same link to my content and it'll get 100 comments and thousands of clicks. In my experience HN is far more random than both Twitter and Reddit. It's very frustrating and disappointing.
- praveen9920 6y agoIs it possible that time of posting matters? When there are increased number of high trending posts on first page, it is very less likely that a new post gets any attention irrespective of quality of content.
- fogetti 6y agoIf you watch it closely, all the posts are stalled when the US folks sleep. The only active changes on the top page are during the kind of short 10-12 hourish time period when dang is awake and cares about the submissions.
- forrestthewoods 6y agoIt definitely matters. I’ve hit #2 or #3 here or on Reddit when any other day that’d week I’d hi t#1. Sometimes you just get unlucky and a big story comes out. Clicks are logarithmic, but there’s no way around that. I’ve tried experimenting at all times of day. I like around 8am pacific. That’s almost lunchtime on the east coast, but Europe is still up to. It takes time to rise. If you take off then you’ll be placed high from east coast dinner time and hopefully through west coast evening. Getting more than 10 clicks on HN is a complete and total dice roll. As best I can tell there is no rhyme or reason. Not for my content at least. r/programming r/cpp and r/rust have been highly reliable for me. Consistent top 5 placement. For context here’s my archive. https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/ https://www.forrestthewoods.com/blog/
- freedomben 6y agoMy experience as well. I've submitted numerous times and been shocked that it gets maybe one vote, and sometimes days later I see the same link but it's hundred of votes and sitting on the front page. My current theory that is entirely without basis or data to back it up is certain users are given a lot more weight. A post of mine with 6 to 10 upvotes won't make it to page 2, but I'll see some with 4 upvotes on the front page. Oh well.
- brabel 6y agoI've had only one blog post go viral on HN (and it was not even I who posted it here) and it was one that was not technically interesting (in my opinion at least), but polemic and intentionally provocative. I wrote it in a fit of anger, not to attract attention... everything I'd written before, where I put lots of effort to make interesting points or create useful projects went mostly unnoticed compared to that angry post. Unfortunately, that's the kind of content that "engages" people, it seems (HN is no different than any other "social media" platform, why would it be?).
- Jaruzel 6y agoYou just have to keep submitting. Of all the things I've submitted I'd say <10% have hit the front page, but those that have, got a lot of comments and interest. I like to think that even if only one person saw what I posted, then the submission was worth it. Pin the submission bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar, as it makes submitting a breeze with almost zero effort. Also, for others, if you see a high ranked submission that you like from a user, click on their name and see what else they've submitted - it's a good way to find hidden gems.
- Tomte 6y agoAlso, when you're on someone's profile, take a look at his favorites: https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=Jaruzel https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=Jaruzel In your case there are no favorite submissions, but some people have them.
- Jaruzel 6y agoI use my favourites list as a 'no time now, read later' list. :)
- polote 6y agoI'm sorry that your post didn't reach the front page and it is not included, in my most because I only pick recent blogposts. This is maybe not the best choice, but I want to encourage individual to post frequently and also this is a bit longer to verify that the post has never been popular if it is old
- zaat 6y agoNo hard feelings. The (relative) popularity of my comment tells me I stroke a common pain point here. I guess the solution for this problem worth a fortune.
- saagarjha 6y agoHacker News is fickle, but you can kind of guess what it wants. Based on my own experience, a post about making the Objective-C runtime faster that leads with a meh title and x86 assembly is not really too likely to do very well: it’s hard for people to relate to. But a satire post on something people can understand? That can get a thousand upvotes in a few hours. (Probably even more, if it didn’t disappear from the front page suddenly in what I’d guess is downranking based on the lack of interesting content…) Post something people know about and discussion will tend to the most general thing in the article, and you’ll get upvotes from the people who can find those keywords. If you don’t provide that, then it’s much harder to do well even though the quality of your post might be higher.
- user5994461 6y agoThe article on vaccine from 7 years ago? There are too many virus articles competing for attention to get traction and too much virus fatigue from the spam.